Discussions By Condition: I cannot get a diagnosis.

pain, fatigue, tachycardia, fainting

I am a 32 year old female, slightly underweight, no known diseases. I was diagnosed 5 years ago with fibromyalgia with symptoms of pain, fatigue, etc. for 5 years, i got worse and worse and worse, but my lab tests always came back normal.

3 months ago, i convinced my doctor to try again, and this time my c3/c4 complement came back low, my leukocytes and monocytes were low, as was my alkaline phosphotase. my vitamin d was low as well. my ANA came back negative. his response was to put me on vitamin d and try the labs again at the end of 4 months.

for the last 6 weeks, i've had sharp chest pains that come and go. sometimes they spread down my right arm. nothing specific seems to trigger them. i also have episodes where my heart races (160 bmp+) and/or it feels as if it is beating out of chest. when that happens, i feel lightheaded and breathless. i have fainted twice. i tried going to the hospital, but, without running one test, the doctor decided i was having a panic attack. keep in mind, i was the calmest person in the room. my ankles and feet swell, and most of the toes are now permanently a dusky shade of purple.

5 Replies:

I would definitely see a cardiologist; doctors are very quick to say "panic" or "anxiety" if they don't know what's wrong or don't have the gumption to figure it out. :mad: To me, that's almost criminal, but unfortunately that's the way medicine is practiced. We have to fight for our rights to appropriate care, but don't give up.l

I am very concerned about you! A low C3/C4 and swelling is a *classic* diagnosis of hereditary angioedema. Find a *very* good allergist or hematologist (blood doctor) ASAP! http://www.haea.org/diagnosing_hae_for_physicians.php There have been a lot of people on the forum lately withthis problem, not surprisingly, perhaps, because we sufferers are very hard to diagnose. *Please* have this checked out ASAP! It is a very serious disease!

unfortunately, being diagnosed with fibromyalgia causes 2 reactions in doctors. 1. they don't believe in it, so they treat you like a junkie hypochondriac 2. they conveniently blame absolutely everything on it. basically, a patient with fibromyalgia is a get out of jail free card for an er doc. trust me, i know about living in the er. if i went to the er every time my chest hurt, or my heart raced, or i had trouble breathing, or my stomach felt like live weasels were eating away at my intestines, i would never have time for anything else. i've gotten so used to it all, i don't even think i can see how serious this is. funny that lyme disease should be mentioned. my husband was just diagnosed with stage III. (he became violently paranoid, and the psych ward doc had the presence of mind to order an mri on his brain. turned out, the lyme had caused brain swelling, which led to my gentle, humorous husband turning into a crazed maniac. fortunately, the treatment is working. just so you know, my "panic attacks" started well before my husband started to get psych symptoms) heredity angioedema doesn't explain most of my problems, but it does explain the bouts of excruciating abdominal pain, which i didn't even mention. i feel ignored (not by you), frustrated and exhausted. my fibro doc ran tests 4 months ago, test with scary results, but because the ana came back negative, he's not interested. the er docs just want to bounce me because i'm taking valuable resources away from people with real problems (i am quoting the last doc to see me), even though studies have proven that patients with non-emergencies (even if that were me) are not the reason for er overcrowding. also, i have very little money. hubbie ain't working right now (he punched out his last boss for reasons i couldn't follow at all, a symptom of the brain swelling as it turns out.) he'll be out of commission for a while. it takes me a minimum of a month to save up the $50 to go to a specialist. so it's really important that i hit the right doctor the first time. otherwise, it's another month without lunch and breakfast before i can see another. thanks for caring! any other suggestions are well appreciated.